Freddi Smulter might have just claimed the heaviest bench press record with 130 kilograms (286 pounds). You might be thinking, “130kg isn’t heavy,” and you’re right, it’s not that heavy at the elite level, but lift it for forty-eight consecutive reps and that weight gets pretty darn challenging. For most strength athletes, the thought of 10+ reps is a daunting task, but not for Smulter.
Smulter’s video features him pressing 130kg (286 lbs) for 48 easy reps. What’s possibly the most impressive part is that he fits it all within one Instagram video (they have a 60-second cap), while taking around 10 seconds to set up.
Yes, he doesn’t pause each rep, nor appear to fully lockout at the top, but this strength feat still deserves respect. His tempo doesn’t even slow down until around rep 43, which is absolutely insane, even with the above factors. On his Instagram post’s description Smulter writes, “Rest day bench press 48×130 kilo feets in the air.”
If this is rest day, what do Smulter’s normal workout days look like? The best and easiest way to answer that question is, extremely heavy. A day ago, Smulter shared a video pressing 290kg for 7 reps raw.
To give context, Smulter was the 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015 world champion for the IPF equipped bench press single-lift super heavyweight category.
In fact, he held the record for the heaviest equipped IPF bench press single-lift world record for multiple years. In 2014 Smulter pressed 400kg for the world record, then broke his record again in 2015 by hitting 401kg.
Unfortunately for Smulter, his record was beaten this past March in Columbus, Ohio as Blaine Sumner pressed 410kg to claim the new IPF super heavyweight equipped bench record.
The next World Open, Sub Junior, Juniors & Master Equipped Bench Press Championship is taking place May 22-27th in Kaunas, Lithuania. If Smulter competes, it will be interesting to see if he can claim his record back by besting Sumner’s 410kg press.
At the 2016 championship Smulter missed 402kg and only successfully completed a 390kg press to claim second. Does he have more than 410kg in him to claim back the record?
Feature image from @superhurri Instagram page.
